John Leland 1791 - He is so happy that most Virginians now believe that slaves can feel pain.

Often people do not realized how far we have come.  Racial prejudices used to be ingrained in the science of the day.  I could find quotes from the 1960's, but these from the 1780-90's blow my mind.  Here is something that then abolitionist Elder John Leland noted on Virginian slavery in 1791.

I am heartily glad, that I can say that the spirit of masters has greatly abated since I have been in Virginia; it is now confessed, by many, that negroes can feel injuries, hunger, pain and weariness, and I hope this spark of good fire will be raised to a flame, in due time.

"Letter of Valediction on Leaving Virginia, in 1791" ~ Elder John Leland[1]

PS - Just for fun here is some Jefferson:

I have  supposed the black man, in his present state, might not be in body and mind equal to the white man; but it would be hazardous to affirm, that, equally cultivated for a few generations, he would not become so.

To General ChasTellux 1785

The improvement of the blacks in body and mind, in the first instance of their mixture [miscegenation]  with the whites, has been observed by every one. and proves that their inferiority is not the effect merely of their condition in life.

Notes On Virginia 1782

Comparing them by their faculties of memory, reason, and imagination, it appears to me that in memory they are equal to the whites; in reason much inferior, as I think one could scarcely be found capable of tracing and comprehending the investigations of Euclid; and that in imagination they are dull, tasteless, and anomalous. It would be unfair to follow them to Africa for this investigation. We will consider them here, on the same stage with the whites, and where the facts are not apocryphal on which a judgment is to be formed. It will be right to make great allowances for the difference of condition, of education, of conversation, of the sphere in which they move. Many millions of them have been brought to, and born in America. Most of them, indeed, have been confined to tillage, to their own homes, and their own society; yet many of them have been so situated that they might have availed themselves of the conversation of their masters; many of them have been brought up to the handicraft arts, and from that circumstance have always been associated with the whites. Some have been liberally educated, and all have lived in countries where the arts and sciences are cultivated to a considerable degree, and have had before their eyes samples of the best works from abroad. The Indians ... will often carve figures on their pipes not destitute of design and merit. They will crayon out an animal, a plant, or a country. so as to prove the existence of a germ in their minds which only wants cultivation. They astonish you with strokes of the most sublime oratory; such as prove their reason and sentiment strong, their imagination glowing and elevated--! Butnever yet could I find that a black had uttered a thought above the level of plain narration; never saw even an elementary trait of painting or sculpture.

—Notes On Virginia 1782

Jefferson's supremacist thoughts on African Americans cataloged in 1900[2]